Patient Participation Groups

What is a Patient Participation Group (PPG)?

This is the name for a group of people who are registered with a GP practice, and who have volunteered to work with the practice to help influence decisions and priorities within the practice, and feedback patient experience to help the practice improve the ways that they work with their patients.  They are sometimes referred to as Patient Reference Groups.

You can get more information about your GP Patient Participation Group from the surgery, or by contacting Paula Martin at the Health Forum.

How are Patient Participation Groups run?

Each PPG will run in a slightly different way.  This may be because the level of support that they receive from the practice might be different to a neighbouring practice, or because the group is organised in a way that suits those patients best, or because the practice has a branch surgery.

For example, a GP practice which has a considerable number of young people or commuters on its practice register, may choose to communicate with those groups of people through social media or on-line surveys, rather than expecting them to attend meetings.

Where can I find out more about the group at my surgery?

Each patient participation group has been invited to summarise their activity and to include it on this website, so that you can see what is going on across the whole of North East Essex.  The matters each group has chosen to address will depend on

• The way that their GP practice is run,
• What those patients have said is important to them.

If there is no information on this site, then contact your practice directly to find out what the position is.

Is there anywhere else that I can find out information on my surgery?

Information about each practice in North East Essex is held on NHS Choices.  The responsibility for updating this information rests with the practice.  The information on NHS Choices includes the details of opening times, doctors at the practice, and clinics that are run.

In addition, you can see how well the practice did in the national Quality Outcome Framework performance assessment, and there is a comments section that allows you to see what other people find good or bad about the practice.

You can enter your postcode on the NHS Choices website to find your nearest GP practices.